2015-2016 Current Events in Veterinary Medicine

[Jess Monster]

http://mashable.com/2016/05/24/taiwan-animal-shelter-suicide/#1C9gnB4W9aqJ So sad

Bullies are everywhere. I think it's an unfortunate situation but also underscores the importance of having a strong support system outside of your work and equally strong personal convictions about how you perform your job. I don't think anyone enters vet med dreaming of ending the lives of animals through euthanasia but it's a necessary job function. It's important to be a realist and to learn to take a "**** you" approach to the aggressively idealist and hypocritical dinguses in the world who would rather judge, shame, criticize, and harass you instead of actually doing something about the problem, like adopting unwanted animals. That's the part about this story that is upsetting. This woman tried the idealistic approach but had her appeals for adoption ignored by her countrymen. Humans love exercising their cruelty against other humans, especially when they can do so from the relative comfort and anonymity of the internet.

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[Caiter92]

Bullies are everywhere. I think it's an unfortunate situation but also underscores the importance of having a strong support system outside of your work and equally strong personal convictions about how you perform your job. I don't think anyone enters vet med dreaming of ending the lives of animals through euthanasia but it's a necessary job function. It's important to be a realist and to learn to take a "**** you" approach to the aggressively idealist and hypocritical dinguses in the world who would rather judge, shame, criticize, and harass you instead of actually doing something about the problem, like adopting unwanted animals. That's the part about this story that is upsetting. This woman tried the idealistic approach but had her appeals for adoption ignored by her countrymen. Humans love exercising their cruelty against other humans, especially when they can do so from the relative comfort and anonymity of the internet.

It doesn't matter how strong of a support system you have or how strong your personal convictions are, depression and compassion fatigue happen, and can happen to anyone. This woman was already dealing with depression, and then was told she was a butcher for doing her job.

I really hope I'm reading this wrong, but it seems to be implied if she had been a realist instead of an idealist (as you label her), this wouldn't have happen to her because she would have been able to have a "**** you," attitude and deal with the people bullying and calling her names for doing her job. I'm sorry, no. She was depressed, which could happen even if she had been a "realist."

This again emphasizes the need to destigmatize mental health issues, how important mental health care is, and how compassion fatigue is not something to be taken lightly.

 

[Jess Monster]

It doesn't matter how strong of a support system you have or how strong your personal convictions are, depression and compassion fatigue happen, and can happen to anyone. This woman was already dealing with depression, and then was told she was a butcher for doing her job.

I really hope I'm reading this wrong, but it seems to be implied if she had been a realist instead of an idealist (as you label her), this wouldn't have happen to her because she would have been able to have a "**** you," attitude and deal with the people bullying and calling her names for doing her job. I'm sorry, no. She was depressed, which could happen even if she had been a "realist."

This again emphasizes the need to destigmatize mental health issues, how important mental health care is, and how compassion fatigue is not something to be taken lightly.

I'm not in disagreement with you though I think it is incredibly important that you have a strong support system and strong personal convictions that what you're doing is right, even if what you have to do is unpleasant. That won't stop you from potentially getting depressed, but it may save your life. How do you seek out mental health care if you have no one who supports you? How do seek out help if you're so overcome with self doubt, hopelessness, and guilt over doing your job that you can't pull yourself back from the edge?

I'm not calling her an idealist. I said she tried the idealistic approach, to get all of these animals adopted first. That wasn't enough for the people who chose to criticize her and to goad her into suicide. I'm sure cultural perspectives on suicide also affected her decision to end her life.

Connectedness and personal beliefs that favor self-preservation and decrease conflict (internal and external) are protective factors that are associated with the reduction of suicide risk. Honestly, as a public health practitioner, I'm willing to venture that this woman had major deficits in those areas which is why I mentioned them specifically. I'm sure there is also mental stigmatization at play as well as other issues like women being major targets of online harassment.

 

[WildZoo]

Some new developments in the Kristen Lindsey case. Based on the comments by whoever runs the AVMA facebook page, it seems like this case has gotten super convoluted.

http://www.kagstv.com/news/local/bo...ion-for-vet-who-shot-cat-with-arrow/303047718

Also found it interesting, the argument that there were no grounds for a cruelty case was potentially based on a faulty interpretation of AVMA guidelines for euthanasia. This is apparently old news but I hadn't seen it brought up before.

http://atwork.avma.org/2015/06/27/e...aptive-bolt-gun-and-gunshot-are-not-the-same/

 

[katashark]

Some new developments in the Kristen Lindsey case. Based on the comments by whoever runs the AVMA facebook page, it seems like this case has gotten super convoluted.

http://www.kagstv.com/news/local/bo...ion-for-vet-who-shot-cat-with-arrow/303047718

Also found it interesting, the argument that there were no grounds for a cruelty case was potentially based on a faulty interpretation of AVMA guidelines for euthanasia. This is apparently old news but I hadn't seen it brought up before.

http://atwork.avma.org/2015/06/27/e...aptive-bolt-gun-and-gunshot-are-not-the-same/

The comments on the second one are making me lol though. Thanks for the update!!


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